Apparatus and method for joint profile-based slicing of mobile access and optical backhaul

ABSTRACT

Software Defined Networking concepts apply to access, fronthaul, backhaul and core networks of 5G mobile networks and beyond. Such network components currently have individual/segmented control planes and associated controllers to provide configurability, provisioning, and network slicing. This is because of technology disparity between these network components: access is wireless/cellular, backhaul and fronthaul are optical/fiber, and core is electrical/wire-line. A system/method is detailed that enables a coordinated and unified end-to-end slicing, wherein the coordination is provided in the system/method that (a) attaches to the respective controllers of these network components in real-time, (b) collects the connectivity topology of each network segment as the network evolves, (c) passes the slice-profile information (translating according to capabilities of that network segment to configure an end-to-end slice with a specified bandwidth requirement and service quality level), and (d) passes across a VLAN tag to be used across network segments to associate with the same slice.

CROSS REFERENCE

This application is a divisional filing of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/378,036, filed 8 Apr. 2019, the entire contents of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of mobile networks.More specifically, the present invention is related to a system andmethod for providing a profile-based slicing of a 5^(th) generation (andbeyond) cellular network's access, backhaul and fronthaul componentscomprising a radio access network (RAN) and a passive optical network(PON).

Discussion of Related Art

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should inno way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely knownor forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

3GPP designed a sliceable 5th generation mobile network infrastructureto provide many logical network segments over a common single physicalnetwork (see TR 28.801). Technologies such as software definednetworking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are the keyenablers for breaking up traditional network structures into suchcustomizable components that can be stitched together using software toprovide the right level of connectivity, with each element running on avirtual architecture of its own choice. One of the primary technicalchallenges facing service providers is being able to deliver the widevariety of network performance characteristics that future services willdemand. Such performance characteristics are bandwidth, latency, packetloss, security, reliability—all of which will greatly vary from oneservice to the other. Emerging applications such as remote operation ofrobots, massive IOT, and self-driving cars require connectivity, butwith vastly different characteristics. New technologies such asvirtualization, network programmability and network slicing enablelogical networks that are customized to meet the quality of service(QoS) needs of each application.

Network slicing also provides a way to segment the network to supportparticular types of services or businesses or even to host other serviceproviders who do not own a physical network. Each slice can be optimizedaccording to capacity, coverage, connectivity and performancecharacteristics. Furthermore, since the slices are isolated from eachother both in the control and user planes, the user experience of thenetwork slice will be the same as if it was a physically separatenetwork.

The evolving mobile network is comprised of the ‘access network’ and the‘core network’. The core network relies on SDN and NFV, wherein allcontrol and user plane network functions are separated, virtualized andcompletely distributed. The access network is formed by the radio accessnetwork (RAN) comprised of base stations connected to the core networkinfrastructure through a passive optical network (PON) backhaul that ischosen because of being highly economical. The high bitrate and coveragerequirements of 5G have been achieved by denser deployment of smallcells or Remote Radio Heads (RRH). These small units are deployedanywhere with potentially high traffic requirements to satisfy the need.A BaseBand Unit (BBU) is deployed to manage a group of RRHs, each RRHconnecting to a BBU forming the so-called ‘fronthaul’. Just likebackhaul, fronthaul is expected to be using PON.

According to prior art, SDN concepts apply to the access, fronthaul,backhaul and core. Meaning, they all have individual control planes toprovide configurability, provisioning and network management, but it issegmented and disconnected from one another primarily due to technologydisparity. From technology perspective, the access is wireless/cellular,backhaul and fronthaul are optical/fiber, and core iselectrical/wireline. A coordinated end-to-end slicing including RAN, PONand core network has not been addressed to date. The delivery methods ofa slice that correspond the same level quality of service are differentacross these three segments. For example, while cellular access mustaccount for the high mobility of users, and thus frequent adjustment ofslice parameters across many base stations, the passive optical networkhas high capacity but not frequently configurable by design.

Standardization efforts have gone into defining specific slices andtheir requirements based on application/service. For example, the userequipment (UE) can now directly specify its desired slice using a newfield called Network Slice Selection Assistance ID (NSSAI) in the packetheader. A subfield of NSSAI is Slice/Service Types (SST) that is used toindicate the slice type. The standards already defined most commonlyusable network slices and the corresponding standardized SST values inETSI document TS 23.501. For example, SST values of 1, 2 and 3correspond to slice types of enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB),ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (uRLLC) and massive IoT(MIoT), respectively. These services reflect the most commonly plannednew services. The network slice selection instance for a UE is normallytriggered as part of the initial registration procedure. The Access andMobility Management Function (AMF) of the core network retrieves theslices that are allowed by the user's subscription and interacts withthe Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) of the core network toselect the appropriate network slice instance for that traffic on theRAN.

A service provider can offer the Network Slice as a Service (NSaaS) toanother service provider in the form of a virtual telecommunicationsservice. NSaaS allows the tenant provider to use the network sliceinstance just like an end user, or optionally allows the tenant providerto manage the specific network slice instance via a network managementexposure interface. In turn, the tenant provider may use the slice byfurther slicing it to offer its own communication services family. Apublic safety network provider, for example, can be a tenant of a mobileoperator's network and request a slice that has high security and highreliability.

Each network slice must be stitched from an access (RAN) slice, abackhaul/fronthaul PON slice as well as the corresponding core networkslice, and must be characterized using a ‘Profile’ according to thisinvention, wherein exemplary attributes of a Profile are:

1. Application type (i.e., voice, video, gaming etc.)

2. Bandwidth (upstream and downstream)

3. End-to-end packet latency

4. Reliability/Availability

5. Packet loss

6. Security (encryption)

7. Charging type

8. User Equipment type

9. Traffic priority

10. Service Function Chain (SFC) on data path

11. Traffic policies (such as security or routing policies)

An exemplary slice is a highly secure, highly reliable and with highpriority, which requires (a) traffic encryption, (b) multiple disjointparallel traffic routes for improved reliability against facilitiesfailures, and (c) high priority treatment against other traffic. Thechallenge is to map a user's traffic to one of these slices.

The embodiments described here enable specifically the radio access,backhaul and fronthaul components of the mobile network to provide aseamless slice with the same ‘Profile’. A new profile is added to theRAN and PON, or updated as the users move around, or as new networkcomponents such as base stations, or PON components are added to thenetwork or removed from the network, or as new services and applicationsare defined. A key aspect of the invention is to group cellular users'traffic together using the same layer 2 protocol (e.g., VLAN tag) as anidentifier in such a way that the specific traffic stream receivessame/similar treatment without being in any way tied into the specificlayer 1 (physical layer) technology used to deliver it. Given neitherRAN nor PON fully support layer 3 (routing layer) protocols, the onlyway to create a common denominator is to use layer 2. As a result, thismethod obfuscates whether it is cellular, wireless, optical, electrical,time division multiplexing (TDM) or wavelength division multiplexing(WDM) that is used at the physical layer. By using the system and methodaccording to this invention, the control plane applications of RAN andPON are loosely integrated and mediated so that access, backhaul andfronthaul connectivity, bandwidth and QoS are translated across networksusing a common ‘profile’ creating a consistent view of the overallaccess, and thereby delivering the same level of service quality. Thesystem and method of invention can further be extended to integrate intothe control layer of profile based slicing of the core network.

Embodiments of the present invention are an improvement over prior artsystems and methods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method to coordinateassignment of total upstream and downstream bandwidths in a mobilenetwork, the mobile network comprising a radio access network (RAN) anda passive optical network (PON), the RAN comprising a RAN controller, aplurality of base stations (BSs) configured by the RAN controller, thePON comprising a PON controller, a plurality of Optical Networking Units(ONUs), and at least one optical line termination (OLT) unit, each ONUattached to a BS within the plurality of BSs in the RAN and the OLT inthe PON, the ONUs and the OLT both configured by the PON controller, themethod comprising the steps of: (a) identifying, at the RAN controller,total upstream and downstream bandwidth information for all userconnections in each BS within the plurality of BSs in the RAN; (b)receiving the identified information of (a) from the RAN controller, andmapping, at a system attached to both the RAN controller and the PONcontroller of the mobile network, each BS to its attached ONU; (c)sending a message to the PON controller, the message comprising aconfiguration request for total upstream and downstream bandwidths onONUs identified in the information of (a), and wherein, based on themessage in (c), the PON controller configuring the bandwidths ontoupstream and downstream connections associated with ONU in the PON thatis attached to the BS in the RAN, and wherein the message beingtranslated to be compatible with an interface associated with the PONcontroller.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method tocoordinate assignment of two different profiles across a mobile network,the mobile network comprising a radio access network (RAN) and a passiveoptical network (PON), the RAN comprising a RAN controller, a pluralityof base stations (BSs) configured by the RAN controller, the PONcomprising a PON controller, a plurality of Optical Networking Unit(ONUs), and at least one optical line termination (OLT) unit, each ONUattached to a BS within the plurality of BSs in the RAN and the OLT inthe PON, the ONUs and the OLT both configured by the PON controller, themethod as implemented in the RAN controller comprising the steps of: (a)receiving a first message at the RAN controller, the first messagecomprising: (i) a first profile information and associated first set ofone or more VLAN tags, and (ii) a second profile information andassociated second set of one or more VLAN tags; (b) sending to a BSwithin the plurality of BSs in the RAN: (i) the first profile data, (ii)the first set of one or more VLAN tags, (iii) the second profile data,and (iv) the second set of one or more VLAN tags, wherein the BS maps afirst group of GTP-U tunnels corresponding to the first profile to VLANswith the first set of one or more VLAN tags, and the BS maps a secondgroup of GTP-U tunnels corresponding to the second profile to VLANs withthe second set of one or more VLAN tags; (c) sending a second message tothe PON controller, the second message comprising the first profiledata, the first set of one or more VLAN tags, the second profile data,and the second set of one or more VLAN tags, wherein a system attachedto both the RAN controller and the PON controller of the mobile networkdetermines corresponding ONU and OLT configuration parameters, and sendsa third message to the PON controller containing the ONU and OLTconfiguration parameters; (d) the PON controller configuring: (i) thefirst profile data, (ii) the first set of one or more VLAN tags, (iii)the second profile data, and (iv) the second set of one or more VLANtags and corresponding PON configuration parameters into the OLT and theONUs.

In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides an article ofmanufacture comprising non-transitory computer storage medium storingcomputer readable program code which, when executed by a processorimplements a method to coordinate assignment of total upstream anddownstream bandwidths in a mobile network, the mobile network comprisinga radio access network (RAN) and a passive optical network (PON), theRAN comprising a RAN controller, a plurality of base stations (BSs)configured by the RAN controller, the PON comprising a PON controller, aplurality of Optical Networking Units (ONUs), and at least one opticalline termination (OLT) unit, each ONU attached to a BS within theplurality of BSs in the RAN and the OLT in the PON, the ONUs and the OLTboth configured by the PON controller, the non-transitory computerstorage medium comprising: (a) computer readable program codeidentifying, at the RAN controller, total upstream and downstreambandwidth information for all user connections in each BS within theplurality of BSs in the RAN; (b) computer readable program codereceiving the identified information of (a) from the RAN controller, andmapping, at a system attached to both the RAN controller and the PONcontroller of the mobile network, each BS to its attached ONU; (c)computer readable program code sending a message to the PON controller,the message comprising a configuration request for total upstream anddownstream bandwidths on ONUs identified in the information of (a), andwherein, based on the message in (c), the PON controller configuring thebandwidths onto upstream and downstream connections associated with ONUin the PON that is attached to the BS in the RAN, and wherein themessage being translated to be compatible with an interface associatedwith the PON controller.

In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides an article ofmanufacture comprising non-transitory computer storage medium storingcomputer readable program code which, when executed by a processorimplements a method to coordinate assignment of two different profilesacross a mobile network, the mobile network comprising a radio accessnetwork (RAN) and a passive optical network (PON), the RAN comprising aRAN controller, a plurality of base stations (BSs) configured by the RANcontroller, the PON comprising a PON controller, a plurality of OpticalNetworking Unit (ONUs), and at least one optical line termination (OLT)unit, each ONU attached to a BS within the plurality of BSs in the RANand the OLT in the PON, the ONUs and the OLT both configured by the PONcontroller, the non-transitory computer storage medium comprising: (a)computer readable program code receiving a first message at the RANcontroller, the first message comprising: (i) a first profileinformation and associated first set of one or more VLAN tags, and (ii)a second profile information and associated second set of one or moreVLAN tags; (b) computer readable program code sending to a BS within theplurality of BSs in the RAN: (i) the first profile data, (ii) the firstset of one or more VLAN tags, (iii) the second profile data, and (iv)the second set of one or more VLAN tags, wherein the BS maps a firstgroup of GTP-U tunnels corresponding to the first profile to VLANs withthe first set of one or more VLAN tags, and the BS maps a second groupof GTP-U tunnels corresponding to the second profile to VLANs with thesecond set of one or more VLAN tags; (c) computer readable program codesending a second message to the PON controller, the second messagecomprising the first profile data, the first set of one or more VLANtags, the second profile data, and the second set of one or more VLANtags, wherein a system attached to both the RAN controller and the PONcontroller of the mobile network determines corresponding ONU and OLTconfiguration parameters, and sends a third message to the PONcontroller containing the ONU and OLT configuration parameters; (d)computer readable program code in the PON controller configuring: (i)the first profile data, (ii) the first set of one or more VLAN tags,(iii) the second profile data, and (iv) the second set of one or moreVLAN tags and corresponding PON configuration parameters into the OLTand the ONUs.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a system attachedto both Radio Access Network (RAN) controller and Passive OpticalNetwork (PON) controller of a mobile network, the RAN controller and thePON controller, the RAN controller configuring a plurality of basestations (BS) forming the access subnetwork, and the PON controllerconfiguring a plurality of Optical Networking Units (ONUs) and OpticalLine Termination Units (OLT)s forming the backhaul subnetwork, whereineach ONU is attached to a base station and to an OLT, the systemcomprising: (a) a database storing (i) topology information associatedwith connectivity of access subnetwork and backhaul subnetworkcomponents, the topology information associated with connectivity ofaccess subnetwork and backhaul subnetwork components retrieved from theRAN controller and the PON controller, respectively, (ii) profileinformation of a plurality of profiles including their attributes andassigned profile IDs retrieved from the RAN controller, and (iii) theprofile information's mapping onto backhaul subnetwork configurationparameters; (b) a connectivity tracker function to track in real-timethe topology information between the access and backhaul subnetworkcomponents; (c) a mapping function translating profile informationretrieved from the RAN controller to corresponding backhaul subnetworkconfiguration parameters; and (d) an interface function thatcommunicates with both the RAN controller and the PON controller usingtheir respective Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure, in accordance with one or more various examples,is described in detail with reference to the following figures. Thedrawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and merelydepict examples of the disclosure. These drawings are provided tofacilitate the reader's understanding of the disclosure and should notbe considered limiting of the breadth, scope, or applicability of thedisclosure. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustrationthese drawings are not necessarily made to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates the access network of a 5^(th) generation mobilenetwork (prior art).

FIG. 2 illustrates data mapping between access network components (priorart).

FIG. 3 illustrates the mapping of GTP-U tunnels into VLANs according tothe present invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates data mapping between profiles and VLANs to RANaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 4B illustrates data mapping between profiles and VLANs to PONaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates the system block diagram showing VLANs and GEM ports.

FIG. 6 illustrates the control layer of the 5^(th) generation accessnetwork with system of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates the block diagram of system of the present invention.

FIG. 8 depicts the messaging diagram for setting up a new profile.

FIG. 9 depicts the messaging diagram for updating an existing profile.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

While this invention is illustrated and described in a preferredembodiment, the invention may be produced in many differentconfigurations. There is depicted in the drawings, and will herein bedescribed in detail, a preferred embodiment of the invention, with theunderstanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as anexemplification of the principles of the invention and the associatedfunctional specifications for its construction and is not intended tolimit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. Those skilled in theart will envision many other possible variations within the scope of thepresent invention.

Note that in this description, references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” mean that the feature being referred to is included in atleast one embodiment of the invention. Further, separate references to“one embodiment” in this description do not necessarily refer to thesame embodiment; however, neither are such embodiments mutuallyexclusive, unless so stated and except as will be readily apparent tothose of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the present invention caninclude any variety of combinations and/or integrations of theembodiments described herein.

An electronic device (e.g., a base station, router, switch, gateway,hardware platform, controller etc.) stores and transmits (internallyand/or with other electronic devices over a network) code (composed ofsoftware instructions) and data using machine-readable media, such asnon-transitory machine-readable media (e.g., machine-readable storagemedia such as magnetic disks; optical disks; read only memory; flashmemory devices; phase change memory) and transitory machine-readabletransmission media (e.g., electrical, optical, acoustical or other formof propagated signals—such as carrier waves, infrared signals). Inaddition, such electronic devices include hardware, such as a set of oneor more processors coupled to one or more other components—e.g., one ormore non-transitory machine-readable storage media (to store code and/ordata) and network connections (to transmit code and/or data usingpropagating signals), as well as user input/output devices (e.g., akeyboard, a touchscreen, and/or a display) in some cases. The couplingof the set of processors and other components is typically through oneor more interconnects within the electronic devices (e.g., busses andpossibly bridges). Thus, a non-transitory machine-readable medium of agiven electronic device typically stores instructions for execution onone or more processors of that electronic device. One or more parts ofan embodiment of the invention may be implemented using differentcombinations of software, firmware, and/or hardware.

As used herein, a network device such as a base station, switch, router,controller, optical line termination, optical splitter, optical networkunit, gateway or host is a piece of networking component, includinghardware and software that communicatively interconnects with otherequipment of the network (e.g., other network devices, and end systems).Switches provide network connectivity to other networking equipment suchas switches, gateways, and routers that exhibit multiple layernetworking functions (e.g., routing, layer-3 switching, bridging, VLAN(virtual LAN) switching, layer-2 switching, Quality of Service, and/orsubscriber management), and/or provide support for traffic coming frommultiple application services (e.g., data, voice, and video). UserEquipment (UE) is generally a mobile device such as a cellular phone, ora sensor, or another type of equipment that wirelessly connects to themobile network.

Any physical device in the network is generally identified by its type,ID/name, Medium Access Control (MAC) address, and Internet Protocol (IP)address. The 5th generation mobile networks rely on software definednetworking (SDN) wherein the controller of the SDN can run on a singleserver or may be distributed on several servers. At any point in time,one controller may be the master while others are slaves. Alternatively,the plurality of controllers may be in a peer mode. The controller maybe attached to each base station, switch or router in the network.

Note that while the illustrated examples in the specification discussmainly 5G networks relying on SDN (as Internet Engineering Task Force[IETF] and Open Networking Forum [ONF] define), and NFV (as EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) define), embodiments ofthe invention may also be applicable in other kinds of network (mobileand non-mobile) that widely use GTP-U tunnels and SDN networks.

For simplified terminology in the following descriptions, the term‘access network’ is used to include both RAN and backhaul or fronthaulPON components. FIG. 1 is a simple access network of a 5th generationmobile network comprising (a) User Equipment 1, 2, . . . , 6, wherein UE1, 2 and 3 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100 a, and UE 4, 5 and6 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100 b, forming a simple RadioAccess Network (RAN), (b) Optical Network Unit (ONU) 110 a, attached togNodeB 100 a via link 148, and ONU 110 b, attached to gNodeB 100 b vialink 147, wherein both connections 147 and 148 are electrical, such astwisted-pair or coaxial cable, (c) Optical Line Termination (OLT) 120attached to ONU 110 a and 110 b via an Optical Distribution Network(ODN) mainly comprising Passive Optical Splitter 151, and optical fiberlinks 141, 143 and 144. Passive Optical Splitter 151 basically splitsfiber feed 143 into each fiber drop (strand) 141 and 144 towards theONUs.

There may be up to 8, 32 or 64 ONUs attached to each OLT, depending onthe size of OLT implementation. ONU converts optical signals transmittedvia fiber to electrical signals, and vice versa. In the upstreamdirection, UE sends data via cellular signals to eNodeB, which in turnconverts them into electrical signals and sends them to its attachedONU, which in turn converts them into optical signals and sends them tothe upstream OLT, which in turn converts them back to electric signalsand sends them to aggregation switch 101. The traffic from many OLTs ina geographical area is gathered at switch 101 and then routed towardsthe core network 190, which comprises a routed network on which corenetwork functions are scattered as virtualized network functions.

Each ONU aggregates and grooms different types of data coming from eacheNodeB and sends them to the upstream OLT. Grooming is the process thatoptimizes and reorganizes the data stream so it would be delivered moreefficiently. OLT supports a dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm(and sometimes implements more than one algorithm) that supports fairdistribution of upstream and downstream fiber capacity amongst multipleONUs to support traffic that comes in bursts from the UEs. The OLT, itsattached ONUs and the ODN form a Passive Optical Network (PON). Thereare various types of PONs known in prior art such as Gigabit PON (GPON),Ethernet PON (EPON) and ATM PON (APON) depending on the capabilities andlayer 2 protocols supported. A typical PON operates at layers 1 and 2 ofOSI, but may also perform some limited layer 3 functions such as IPheader lookup and processing.

The mappings between RAN components and the corresponding PON componentsof the access network are illustrated in FIG. 2 . The RAN components areidentified by the ID of base stations (gNodeB). Each gNodeB has a uniqueID assigned manually or by its control/management system.Correspondingly, an ONU ID identifies each ONU. The ID corresponding tothe ONU is uniquely assigned by its upstream OLT. Each OLT has a uniqueID as well, assigned to it manually or by the control/management systemof a group of OLTs. A group of OLTs are attached to an aggregationswitch. These mappings are used in the database schema of system ofinvention.

Traffic Container (T-CONT) is traffic bearing object within an ONU thatrepresents a group of logical connections, and is treated as a singleentity for the purpose of upstream bandwidth assignment on the PON. Inthe upstream direction, it is used to bear the service traffic.Typically, each T-CONT corresponds to one bandwidth type. Each bandwidthtype has its own QoS features. Each T-CONT is identified by the ALLOC_IDuniquely, allocated by OLT i.e. a T-CONT can only be used by one ONU perPON interface on the OLT.

The GPON Encapsulation Method (GEM) port is a virtual port forperforming so-called GEM encapsulation for transmitting frames betweenOLT and ONU in a GEM channel. Each different traffic class (TC) isassigned a different GEM Port ID. A T-CONT consists of one or more GEMPorts. Each GEM port bears one kind of service traffic. The GEM Port IDis uniquely allocated by the OLT. Between the ONU and OLT layer 2 framesare carried over it through the GEM frames identified by GEM Port IDs.Each GEM Port ID is unique per OLT and represents a specific traffic orgroup of flows between OLT and ONU. GEM channels are used to transmitboth upstream traffic, which is from ONU to OLT, and to transmitdownstream traffic, which is always broadcast traffic from OLT towardsall ONUs. Each ONU identifies traffic destined to it based on thematching GEM Port ID in the received GEM frames. In summary, GEM Portsare used to differentiate among different traffic classes (TCs).

FIG. 3 traces traffic from UE 1, 2 and 3 via gNodeB 100 a, ONU 110 a,OLT 120, S 101, and core network switches S1, S2 and S3 towards UserPlane Function (UPF) 191. The origination is a UE and the destination isthe UPF at the core network. Each UE's traffic is placed within a GTP-Utunnel according to standards. There is one GPRS Tunneling ProtocolGTP-U tunnel per UE and per bearer (service type) as illustrated in thepicture. GTP-U protocol is defined by 3GPP to carry packetized radioservice within 3G, LTE and 5G core networks. One GTP tunnel isestablished per user equipment, per bearer per QoS (UE/bearer/QoS) andper traffic direction along an interface between any pair of 5G networkfunctions. Two GTP tunnels (one for uplink and one for downlink) areestablished between base station (eNodeB) and the UPF. The eNodeBreceives IP packets from the user equipment that is attached to theradio network and destined to a data network (such as the Internet),wraps them into the GTP tunnel payload, which has a source IP address ofthat eNodeB, and destination IP address of the UPF.

GTP comprises the following protocols: GTP-C, which performs signalingacross the core network to activate and deactivate GTP tunnels, andGTP-U, which transports user data between core network functions, andbetween the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the core network functions.GTP-U supports both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols in its payload. GTP-Utunneling protocol stack, header format and messages are all well knownin prior art (see ETSI's 3GPP TS 29.281), and therefore not detailedhere. Furthermore, the architectural components of both LTE and 5G corenetworks are detailed in various ETSI documents, and therefore will notbe recited here.

GTP-U tunneling is a simple and robust solution to handle the highlymobile user equipment that has a changing location due to mobility.Instead of constantly changing routing tables in routers of the corenetwork for the changing locations of those IP addresses of users, eachUE/bearer/QoS data is wrapped in IP packets as PDU, and then wrappedinto a GTP-U tunnel whose source and destination IP addresses are thoseservice functions (e.g., base station as one anchor and UPF as the otheranchor) at the two end points of the tunnel. This achieves more stablerouting tables while the device moves around in the core network.

The control plane of core network assigns each unidirectional GTP-Utunnel a unique Tunnel End ID (TEID). UE 1 has two traffic types withNSSAI=1 and NSSAI=2, UE 2 has two traffic types with NSSAI=1 andNSSAI=2, and UE 3 has two traffic types with NSSAI=2, and NSSAI=3, alltogether resulting in a total of six tunnels, each with a differenttunnel ID, namely TEIDs 1 through 6. NSSAI is a 3GPP-defined descriptorknown in prior art that defines up to eight different service types.When NSSAI with a specific value is present in the data packets of a UE,it defines a specific type of service that requires a unique quality ofservice (QoS) treatment. For example, NSSAI has a field known asStandard Slice Type (SST) having values of SST=1 for enhanced MobileBroadband, eMB, SST=2 for ultra-reliable and ultra-low delaycommunications, uRLLC and SST=3 for Massive IOT, mIOT.

According to an aspect of this invention, the gNodeB carries each GTP-Utunnel in a VLAN, depending on the type of service it carries. Threeexemplary VLANs are created with tags (or IDs) 10, 20 and 30. NSSAI=1traffic is placed into VLAN 10, NSSAI=2 traffic is placed into VLAN 20,and NSSAI=3 traffic is placed into VLAN 30 regardless of the identity ofthe UE. Doing so, a traffic aggregation of the same type and a uniqueidentification at layer 2 are achieved. VLAN 10 (310 a) carries only onetype of traffic while VLAN 20 (310 b) and VLAN 30 (310 c) carry acompletely different type of traffic that have different QoSrequirements.

A unique ‘profile’ is defined per service type and a unique VLAN tag ismapped onto it according to this invention in the access network,wherein the same VLAN tag is used across RAN and PON components of theaccess network, VLAN tag basically forms the binding information of datarecords across RAN and PON. In one embodiment, the VLAN tag is insertedthe upstream direction by the base station, and removed by the OLT. In asecond embodiment, the VLAN tag is inserted by the base station, andremoved by a switching node within the core network. In the firstembodiment, the VLAN tags are only meaningful and visible within theaccess portion of the network, because they are removed before thetraffic entering into the aggregation switch. In the second embodiment,the core network performs slicing and routing according to the same VLANtag. For simplicity, the embodiments here consider only one VLAN tag perGTP-U tunnel group. In prior art, there are other possible embodiments.For example, there may be a VLAN tag used by UE (also known as customerVLAN tag (cVLAN), and an outer VLAN with a VLAN tag known as the serviceprovider VLAN tag (sVLAN). The VLAN tag used in this inventioncorresponds to the sVLAN tag. However, the invention does not rule outuse of cVLAN tags.

FIG. 4A shows the data schema/mapping between profiles, VLAN tags andbase stations. A base station may be configured with a plurality of‘profiles’ wherein each profile is identified by a Profile ID and has aset of attributes such as upstream and downstream bandwidth, delay andpacket loss. Each Profile ID maps into a unique VLAN ID. Each basestation supports those VLAN IDs that correspond to the Profile IDsconfigured on it. gNodeB 100 a is configured with three profiles,Profile 1, 2 and 3, while gNodeB 100 b is configured only with Profiles1 and 3. Both base stations support VLAN 10 and 30. gNodeB 100 b alsosupports VLAN 20.

FIG. 4B illustrates the data structures corresponding to the schema ofPON. ONU 110 a and 110 b must be configured with GEM ports correspondingto the unique VLANs. Since ONU 110 a is attached to gNodeB 100 a, and ithas to support VLAN 10, 20 and 30 traffic streams. For this reason,three GEM ports are assigned, GEM port 1 is mapped to VLAN 10, GEM port2 mapped to VLAN 20 and GEM port 3 mapped to VLAN 30. Similarly, sinceONU 110 b is attached to gNodeB 100 b, and therefore it has to supportVLAN 10 and 20 traffic streams, two GEM ports are assigned: GEM port 4is mapped to VLAN 10 and GEM port 5 mapped to VLAN 20.

The mapping between GEM ports and VLANs for the upstream traffic isillustrated in the block diagram of FIG. 5 . The traffic classifier inONU 110 a and 110 b grooms traffic according to VLAN tags and sends themin upstream direction towards the corresponding GEM port. Each GEM portperforms the GEM encapsulation of the VLAN traffic and forwards packetsin the GEM channel towards the GEM port on OLT 120. The received trafficcorresponding to VLAN 10, 20 and 30 are processed by different trafficclassifiers (e.g., TC 1, 2 and 3) and scheduled for delivery accordingto the traffic class priorities and upstream bandwidth assignment tothat class. A similar process is applicable in the downstream directionwherein the roles are reversed, i.e., the Classifier is in the OLT andthe Scheduler is in the ONU.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary control layer of the access network thatcomprises RAN controller 111 and PON controller 112, and Mediator 99,which is the system of invention. RAN controller 111 controls gNodeB 100a and 100 b using control interface 181. RAN controller 111 assigns newprofiles to each base station, updates the profile attributes or deletesprofiles. It also designates mappings from service types to profiles(e.g., using SST values), or from user IDs to profiles (e.g., usinguser's IMSI), or from applications to profiles (e.g., using DPImethods). The RAN controller's database stores gNodeB Ids, VLAN Ids,Profile Ids, and profile attributes. Similarly, the PON controller 112controls ONU 110 a and 110 b using control interface 182. PON controllerassigns new profiles to each OLT/ONU, updates the profile attributes ordeletes profiles. It designates GEM port ID to each VLAN ID. The PONcontroller's database stores ONU and OLT Ids, VLAN Ids, GEM Port Ids,Profile Ids, and profile attributes.

Mediator 99 is attached to RAN controller 111 with interface 171 and toPON controller 112 with interface 172. These interfaces are used for theMediator to communicate and mediate between the control layers of thesetwo technologies. An embodiment of Mediator 99 is illustrated in FIG. 7. Access Configuration Tracker 420 collects real-time configuration dataabout the RAN (gNodeBs) and PON (ONUs and OLTs), and constructs thebinding information using a schema stored in Access NetworkConfiguration (ANC) Database (DB) 405. As new gNodeBs (or RRHs and BBUs)are added/deleted, ONUs and OLTs are added/deleted to the network, andnew facilities capacity is added/deleted, the ANC Tracker updates theso-called user plane topology data in ANC DB 405 including the IDs ofeach equipment, their connection to one another, etc. Note that RANcontroller and PON controller are unbeknownst to each other's user planenetworks without the Mediator.

RAN Control interface 401 communicates with RAN Controller using the RANController's application programming interface (API) 171 available tocontroller applications. Similarly PON Control interface 404communicates with PON Controller using the PON Controller's API 172similar available to controller applications. API 171 and 172 can be aRESTFUL API. Mediator collects and updates data related to slicing ofRAN in RAN DB 402. It collects and updates slicing data related to PONin PON DB 403. The data of DB 402 and 403 are correlated in Mapper 410using the information in ANC DB and stored in Mapping DB 407.

It is paramount that to stitch the slice across access, backhaul andfronthaul, the VLAN ID and Profiles play an important role. RAN and PONcomponents must use exactly the same VLAN tags for the same profileconfigured in RAN and PON components by their respective controllers.The VLAN tags are determined by the Mapper and communicated to both RANand PON controllers.

Scenario without use of VLAN tags: In a highly simplified embodiment,all base stations may use only the best effort profile (i.e., no specialtreatment of the traffic), but may have different upstream anddownstream bandwidth needs. In this case, the VLAN tags to identifydifferent profiles are not needed. The user traffic can be carried inGTP-U tunnels without a need for a VLAN at layer 2. Mapper 410 simplytranslates from each base station's upstream and downstream bandwidthrequirements to ONU upstream and downstream capacity requirements interms of the number GEM ports to be assigned to each ONU, andcommunicates this information to PON Controller, which in turncommunicates it to the OLT.

Two messaging scenarios according to an aspect of this invention thatuse VLAN tags are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 . The first scenario in FIG. 8is adding a new Profile to the access and backhaul networks in acoordinated fashion using the system of invention. The second scenarioin FIG. 9 is modifying an existing Profile in a coordinated fashionusing the system of invention. The second scenario arises when a largegroup of mobile users (or services) move from one base station toanother bas station, which requires the corresponding Profileinformation to be updated on both base stations. A new Profile iscreated within the RAN controller. This new Profile information(including Profile attributes) is communicated to the Mediator instep 1. Mediator determines an ID for the new Profile and assigns anavailable VLAN tag to the traffic that belongs to this profile. Thisinformation is entered into the Mapper DB. The Mediator communicates theProfile ID and corresponding VLAN ID to the RAN Controller in step 2,which then assigns the new Profile along with its attributes, Profile IDand VLAN ID. The RAN Controller also designates the mapping from GTP-Utunnels TEIDs to VLAN IDs in step 3. In turn, base station configuresthe Profile. Steps 4a and 4b indicate successful formation of theProfile at the RAN. At this point, the Mediator sets the state of theProfile to Pending, and associates the base station with new Profile tothe ONU it is attached to. In step 5, Mediator sends the Profileinformation along with ONU ID and VLAN ID to PON controller, and in step6 PON Controller configures the OLT accordingly. In step 7, OLTconfigures ONU with Profile information, T-CONT ID and Gem Port IDcorresponding to VLAN ID. Steps 8a and 8b indicate success. The Mediatorchanges the state of the Profile to ‘Active’ given both RAN and PON areappropriately configured. FIG. 9 illustrates the steps of updating theProfile information, similar to the sequence of steps of FIG. 8 . Theupdate of Profile information may take the form of increasing ordecreasing the upstream or downstream bandwidth, or changing thesecurity level, or decreasing packet loss, etc.

CONCLUSION

A system and method has been shown in the above embodiments for theeffective implementation of an apparatus and method for jointprofile-based slicing of mobile access and optical backhaul. Whilevarious preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will beunderstood that there is no intent to limit the invention by suchdisclosure, but rather, it is intended to cover all modificationsfalling within the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in theappended claims. For example, the present invention should not belimited by software/program, computing environment, or specificcomputing hardware.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method to coordinate assignment of twodifferent profiles across a mobile network, the mobile networkcomprising a radio access network (RAN) and a passive optical network(PON), the RAN comprising a RAN controller and a plurality of basestations (BSs) configured by the RAN controller, and the PON comprisinga PON controller, a plurality of Optical Networking Units (ONUs), and anoptical line termination (OLT) unit, each ONU attached to a BS withinthe plurality of BSs in the RAN and the OLT in the PON, the ONUs and theOLT unit both configured by the PON controller, the method asimplemented in the RAN controller comprising the steps of: (a) receivinga first message at the RAN controller, the first message comprising: (i)first profile data and an associated first set of one or more virtuallocal area network (VLAN) tags, and (ii) second profile data and anassociated second set of one or more VLAN tags; (b) sending to a BSwithin the plurality of BSs in the RAN: (i) the first profile data, (ii)the first set of one or more VLAN tags, (iii) the second profile data,and (iv) the second set of one or more VLAN tags to cause the BS to mapa first group of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol(GTP)-User plane (GTP-U) tunnels corresponding to the first profile toVLANs with the first set of one or more VLAN tags, and to map a secondgroup of GTP-U tunnels corresponding to the second profile to VLANs withthe second set of one or more VLAN tags; and (c) sending, to a systemattached to both the RAN controller and the PON controller, a secondmessage, the second message comprising the first profile data, the firstset of one or more VLAN tags, the second profile data, and the secondset of one or more VLAN tags, wherein the system attached to both theRAN controller and the PON controller determines and sends, to acorresponding ONU of the ONUs and the OLT unit, corresponding ONU andOLT configuration parameters for associating the first set of one ormore VLAN tags with first one or more ports of the ONUs and first one ormore ports of the OLT unit and for associating the second set of one ormore VLAN tags with second one or more ports of the ONUs and second oneor more ports of the OLT unit.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst one or more ports of the ONUs and first one or more ports of theOLT unit comprise Gigabit PON (GPON) Encapsulation Method (GEM) ports.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile network is a 5G network. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises storing, ina RAN controller database, the first profile data, the first set of oneor more VLAN tags, the second profile data, and the second set of one ormore VLAN tags.
 5. A method comprising: generating, by a systemcomprising a radio access network (RAN) controller for a RAN and apassive optical network (PON) controller for a PON: (i) a first profilefor a network slice, the first profile comprising one or more profileattributes that define a quality of service for the first profile; (ii)first mapping data associating a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)Tunneling Protocol (GTP)-User plane (GTP-U) tunnel in the RAN to thefirst profile, the GTP-U tunnel configured to transport packets mappedto the network slice; (iii) second mapping data associating the firstprofile to a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag for the networkslice; and (iv) third mapping data associating the VLAN tag for thenetwork slice to an optical channel configured in the PON; attaching, bya base station of the RAN, based on the first mapping data and thesecond mapping data, the VLAN tag for the network slice to a GTP tunnelpacket for the GTP-U tunnel, the GTP tunnel packet generated from apacket mapped to the network slice and received at the base station;outputting, by the base station to an optical device of the PON, the GTPtunnel packet with the attached VLAN tag; mapping, by the opticaldevice, based on the third mapping data, the attached VLAN tag of theGTP tunnel packet to the optical channel configured in the PON; andoutputting, by the optical device, via the optical channel, the GTPtunnel packet with the attached VLAN tag.
 6. The method of claim 5,further comprising: generating, by the system, a second profile for thenetwork slice, the second profile comprising one or more profileattributes that define a quality of service for packets processed by theoptical device using the second profile, wherein the quality of servicefor the first profile matches the quality of service for the secondprofile.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising: sending, by thesystem to the base station, the first profile, the first mapping data,and the second mapping data; and sending, by the system to the opticaldevice, the third mapping data.
 8. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising: generating, by the system, a second profile for the networkslice, the second profile comprising one or more profile attributes thatdefine a quality of service for packets processed by the optical deviceusing the second profile; and sending, by the system to the opticaldevice, the second profile.
 9. The method of claim 5, wherein the RAN isa RAN of a 5G mobile network.
 10. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: receiving, by the base station, the packet from a UserEquipment; reading, by the base station, a data field of the packet,wherein the data field comprises one of a slice type or a useridentifier; mapping, by the base station, the data field to the firstprofile; and processing, by the base station, the packet to meet thequality of service for the first profile.
 11. The method of claim 5,wherein the optical channel comprises a Gigabit PON (GPON) EncapsulationMethod (GEM) port.
 12. A system comprising: a passive optical network(PON) controller for a PON; a radio access network (RAN) controller fora RAN of a mobile network, wherein the RAN controller is configured toobtain: (i) a profile for a network slice, the profile comprising one ormore profile attributes that define a quality of service for theprofile; (ii) first mapping data associating a General Packet RadioService (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP)-User plane (GTP-U) tunnel in theRAN to the profile, the GTP-U tunnel configured to transport packetsmapped to the network slice; (ill) second mapping data associating theprofile to a virtual local area network (VLAN) tag for the networkslice; and (iv) third mapping data associating the VLAN tag for thenetwork slice to an optical channel configured in the PON; a basestation of the RAN of the mobile network, wherein the base station isconfigured to attach, based on the first mapping data and the secondmapping data, the VLAN tag for the network slice to a GTP tunnel packetfor the GTP-U tunnel, the GTP tunnel packet generated from a packetmapped to the network slice and received at the base station, andwherein the base station is configured to output, to an optical deviceof the PON, the GTP tunnel packet with the attached VLAN tag; and theoptical device of the PON, wherein the optical device is configured tomap, based on the third mapping data, the attached VLAN tag of the GTPtunnel packet to the optical channel configured in the PON, and whereinthe optical device is configured to output, via the optical channel, theGTP tunnel packet with the attached VLAN tag.
 13. The system of claim12, wherein the profile includes a profile identifier included in thefirst mapping data and the second mapping data.
 14. The system of claim12, wherein the RAN controller is configured to send, to the basestation, the profile, the first mapping data, and the second mappingdata, and wherein the PON controller is configured to send, to theoptical device, the profile and the third mapping data.
 15. The systemof claim 12, wherein the RAN is a RAN of a 5G mobile network.
 16. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the base station is configured to: receivethe packet from a User Equipment; read a data field of the packet,wherein the data field comprises one of a slice type or a useridentifier; map the data field to the profile; and process the packet tomeet the quality of service for the profile.
 17. The system of claim 12,wherein the optical channel comprises a Gigabit PON (GPON) EncapsulationMethod (GEM) port.